How Does Your Training and Development Program Measure Up?

A recent Training and Development Survey (April 2013) surveyed over 700 individuals about the training programs at their companies. The results allow you to understand the training taking place at other companies, so you can then compare to see how your training and development programs measure against other companies.

Training Focus

The first portion of the training and development survey deals with the topics and areas on which companies are focusing training efforts. The number one focus of training, at 79%, is compliance and orientation for newly hired employees. Sexual harassment training and job-related skills training take second and third place, with 75% and 73% respectively. Some of the other hot topics for training include discrimination, communication, customer service skills, teambuilding, computer skills and time management.

Involvement in Training

According to survey respondents, 70% say executive management makes the final decisions on training. In over half of the companies, 67% of management has some involvement in the decision making process, while 39% of the employees/staff have a say in training decisions. In 8% of the companies, the legal department or legal representation for the company weighs in on training options for employees.

This may leave you wondering what role Human Resources (HR) plays in training and development. In slightly over half of the companies, HR is responsible for evaluating training options and materials. Slightly less than one half of the companies have their HR professionals buy the training courses and materials. Approximately 64% of the companies have HR schedule the training sessions and 57% of the HR professionals are responsible for conducting the training.

Some of the other duties HR handles when it comes to training include:

Offer backup and support to the training department

Develop training materials

Maintain the training records

Evaluate the effectiveness of training

Length of Training Sessions

Survey respondents also weighed in on how long they felt effective training and development sessions should last. Thirty minutes took first place for compliance training topics, but one hour took place for topics covering legal compliance issues. Third place goes to two hours of training, while about 8% say 45-minute sessions are the best training lengths. Only 4% prefer all-day or half-day training sessions.

Training Timeframes

Questioning when and how often you should be training employees? About 64% of companies train newly hired employees on compliance topics. Annual compliance training occurs at 45% of the companies. Monthly compliance training takes place at a mere 7% of the businesses and slightly over half conduct compliance training on an as-needed basis.

Legal compliance topics for supervisors, however, brought in different results. About 60% of companies offer this training on an as-needed basis. Annual training occurs in 40% of the businesses. Newly hired or newly promoted supervisors receive legal compliance training in 36% of the companies.

Compare your training policies and procedures with the results of the other 700 survey respondents. Is your training similar or different from the other companies offering training and development to its employees?

How Does Your Training and Development Program Measure Up? was last modified: January 4th, 2017 by LMS Writer